Though many of the landholders were not satisfied with the amount of compensation offered, very few of them went to arbitration - of the two hundred or so property holders affected by the scheme only eight went to arbitration. These were: Captain Horace Matthews and Mrs Matthews, Nadrid House, Coachford; Morgan Neville, Ballytrasna, Lissarda; Daniel Kelleher & Sons, Coolcour, Macroom; Timothy Murphy, Ovens; John O’Riordan, Umera; Patrick J. Healy, Coolcour, Macroom; John Horgan, Annahala, Toames; Patrick J. Buckley, Fergus, Dripsey. The arbitration hearings were held in the Courthouse, Cork, in November 1955 and the arbitrator was Lt Col J.J. Winters.

A narrow strip of land twenty miles long and less than a mile wide was being flooded. The residents belonged to different communities – seven different parishes and two different dioceses. As well as this, there was the conservatism and secrecy of the farmers to be taken into account. They were very slow to tell anyone – in some cases, their own families – what they were being offered. That, perhaps, could be one of the reasons so few of them sought arbitration. There was no great interest in the environment at the time and there were no environmental groups to protest against the flooding of such places as The Gearagh. Planning permission did not exist then and there was no machinery in place to lodge objections to the scheme.

Infrastructure issue

One infrastructure issue arising out of the proposed work was Work No. 5. It dealt with the replacement of Fitzgibbon bridge. When the Séan Lemass TD, Minister for Industry and Commerce invoked this section of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 1945, he relieved the Board of the obligation of replacing Fitzgibbon bridge. This bridge, built as a Famine Relief Work in 1848, and sometimes known as Cronody bridge, crossed the Dripsey river just west of its junction with the river Lee. In the days when motor transport was scarce, it was of great benefit to these people. With the flooding of the Lee valley the rising waters raised the level of the Dripsey river considerably and Fitzgibbon bridge was submerged. In the ESB plans for the hydro scheme, it was proposed to build a replacement bridge further up the Dripsey river between Cronody and Magoola which would have entailed little or no hardship to the people affected. The proposed replacement bridge was included in the order signed by the Minister sanctioning the whole hydroelectric scheme.

As the scheme progressed the ESB did not replace the bridge. The non-replacement of the bridge was described as the partition of a small portion of County Cork from the rest of the county, the creation of a small peninsula in which the farmers and other residents would be completely isolated. It was argued that the value of the farms in Cronody and Fergus would depreciate. In the case of Dripsey Creamery, 40,000 gallons would be diverted and even the existence of the creamery could be affected. There was an individual case of hardship – the owner of the one licensed pig in the area would have his land cut in half. Without a new bridge, every child in the district would have to walk four or five miles to school. That particular argument lost much of its effect when the ESB bought out Philip Murphy, Cronody, who had the only school-going child in the area.
 
To be continued…
 
Adapted from Kieran McCarthy & Seamus O’Donoghue, forthcoming, Generations, Memories of the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme, County Cork, Lilliput Press, Dublin, An ESB funded publication.

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